The requirement of an ever-escalating level of social violence
to meet the political and economic needs of the insatiable "anti-terrorist
complex" is the essence of the new US militarism. What is now openly
billed as "permanent war" ultimately serves the geo-political
ends of social control in the interests of US corporate domination, much
as the anti-communist crusade of the now-exhausted Cold War did.

Back in 2002, following the trauma of 9-11, Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld predicted there would be more terrorist attacks
against the American people and civilization at large. How could he be so
sure of that? Perhaps because these attacks would be instigated on the order
of the Honorable Mr. Rumsfeld. According to Los Angeles Times military analyst
William Arkin, writing Oct. 27, 2002, Rumsfeld set out to create
a secret army, "a super-Intelligence Support Activity"
network that would "bring together CIA and military covert action,
information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception," to stir
the pot of spiraling global violence.

According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld
by his Defense Science Board, the new organization--the "Proactive,
Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)"--would actually carry
out secret missions designed to provoke terrorist groups into committing
violent acts. The P2OG, a 100-member, so-called "counter-terrorist"
organization with a $100-million-a-year budget, would ostensibly target
"terrorist leaders," but according to P2OG documents procured
by Arkin, would in fact carry out missions designed to "stimulate reactions"
among "terrorist groups"--which, according to the Defense Secretary's
logic, would subsequently expose them to "counter-attack" by the
good guys. In other words, the plan is to execute secret military operations
(assassinations, sabotage, "deception") which would intentionally
result in terrorist attacks on innocent people, including Americans--essentially,
to "combat terrorism" by causing it!

This notion is currently being applied to the problem of
the Iraqi "insurgency," it seems. According to a May 1, 2005 report
by Peter Maass in the New York Times Magazine, two of the top US advisers
to Iraqi paramilitary commandos fighting the insurgents are veterans of
US counterinsurgency operations in Latin America. Loaning credence to recent
media speculation about the "Salvadorization" of Iraq, the report
notes that one adviser currently in Iraq is James Steele, who led a team
of 55 US Army Special Forces advisers in El Salvador in the 1980s. Maass
writes that these advisors "trained front-line battalions that were
accused of significant human rights abuses."

The current senior US adviser at the Iraqi Interior Ministry,
which Maass writes "has operational control over the commandos,"
is former top US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official Steve Casteel,
who worked "alongside local forces" in the US-sponsored "Drug
War" in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, "where he was involved in
the hunt for Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellin cocaine cartel."

The US "drug war" in Latin America also serves
as a cover for ongoing counterinsurgency, employing terrorist methods to
achieve two aims: one, actually combating genuine insurgency; two, the ratcheting
up of a "strategy of tension," heightened social violence designed
to induce fear among the citizenry and the subsequent call for greater
"security."

This was the essence, for example, of Operation
Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of provocateur-style terrorism
and deceit. The ostensible purpose of Gladio, officially launched as a covert
NATO program in 1952, was to establish a clandestine network of "stay-behind"
teams which would organize armed resistance and sabotage in the event of
a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. But the network actually took a far
more proactive role. Directed by US/NATO intelligence services of the West
against their own populations, Operation Gladio led to possibly hundreds
of innocent people being killed or maimed in "terrorist" attacks
which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political
opponents. The most notorious such attack was the 1980 bombing of the train
station at Bologna, which left 85 dead. Initially blamed on left-wing radicals,
the blast was revealed upon investigation to be the work of an ultra-right
network linked to the Italy's Gladio team; four Italian neo-fascists were
eventually convicted of the crime.

The purpose was again twofold: to demonize designated enemies
(the "communists") and to frighten the public into supporting
ever-increasing powers for the national security state. It appears the Pentagon
has been implementing Gladio-style operations for quite some time--possibly
including 9-11. A stretch? Maybe not.

Witness the US Joint Chiefs discussion of "Operation
Northwoods" back in 1962, a plan to blow up U.S. "assets"--including
U.S. citizens--in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. Later, US Army Field
Manual 30-31B, entitled "Stability Operations Intelligence - Special
Fields," dated March 18, 1970 and signed by Gen. William C Westmoreland,
promoted terrorist attacks (and the planting of false evidence) in public
places which were then to be blamed on "communists" and "socialists."
It called for the execution of terrorist attacks throughout Western Europe,
carried out through a network of covert US/NATO armies, in order to convince
European governments of "the communist threat."

What is striking is that during this period the primary source
for US government info on the Russian "threat" was coming from
the Gehlen Organization, Hitlers eastern front intelligence apparatus, which
in the aftermath of World War II had cut a deal with the CIA's Allen Dulles
and worked out of Fort Hunt, just outside Washington DC, before being relocated
back to Munich. Headed up by super-spy Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, the
Org's "special operations" expertise was heeded, financed and
well-protected by U.S. tax dollars well into the 1970's. Could the Gehlen
Org have had an influence in the production of FM 30-31B?

According to FM 30-31B,

"there may be times when Host Country Governments show
passivity or indecision in the face of communist subversion and according
to the interpretation of the US secret services do not react with sufficient
effectiveness. Most often such situations come about when the revolutionaries
temporarily renounce the use of force and thus hope to gain an advantage,
as the leaders of the host country wrongly consider the situation to be
secure. US army intelligence must have the means of launching special operations
which will convince Host Country Governments and public opinion of the reality
of the insurgent danger."

The U.S. Army now claims the document was a Russian forgery.
Journalist Allan Francovich in his BBC documentation on Gladio and US/NATO
"special operations" terrorism, asked Ray Cline, CIA deputy director
from 1962 to 1966, if he believed FM 30-31B was for real and he replied:
"Well, I suspect it is an authentic document. I don't doubt it. I never
saw it but it's the kind of special forces military operations that are
described," to be implemented at the discretion of the president and
Defense Department on the "appropriate occasion."

It could be that in Iraq--and elsewhere around the world--the
"appropriate occasion" has arrived. Bush's war on terrorism could
be the ultimate manifestation of the provocateur state; carrying out of
clandestine "executive actions" and "special operations"
directed against populations, including our own, who are truly ignorant
of the real "enemy" in the face of the ever-present manufactured
one, traumatized by strategic terror designed to engender fear and acquiescence
to further "security measures"--thereby enriching the military,
police agencies, and munitions and nuclear business enterprises.

The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) at www.globalresearch.ca
grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles in their
entirety, or any portions thereof, on community internet sites, as long
as the text & title are not modified. The source must be acknowledged
and an active URL hyperlink address of the original CRG article must be
indicated. The author's copyright note must be displayed. For publication
of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial
internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use
of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.
We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions
of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of
political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted
material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission
from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole
responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the
Centre for Research on Globalization.

To express your opinion on this article, join the discussion
at Global Research's News and Discussion Forum

All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.